42 Then all the army officers, including Johanan son of Kareah and Jezaniah^[a] son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest approached ² Jeremiah the prophet and said to him, ‘Please hear our petition and pray to the Lord your God for this entire remnant. For as you now see, though we were once many, now only a few are left. ³ Pray that the Lord your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do.’

⁴ ‘I have heard you,’ replied Jeremiah the prophet. ‘I will certainly pray to the Lord your God as you have requested; I will tell you everything the Lord says and will keep nothing back from you.’

⁵ Then they said to Jeremiah, ‘May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act in accordance with everything the Lord your God sends you to tell us. ⁶ Whether it is favourable or unfavourable, we will obey the Lord our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it will go well with us, for we will obey the Lord our God.’

⁷ Ten days later the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. ⁸ So he called together Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers who were with him and all the people from the least to the greatest. ⁹ He said to them, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition, says: ¹⁰ “If you stay in this land, I will build you up and not tear you down; I will plant you and not uproot you, for I have relented concerning the disaster I have inflicted on you. ¹¹ Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you now fear. Do not be afraid of him, declares the Lord, for I am with you and will save you and deliver you from his hands. ¹² I will show you compassion so that he will have compassion on you and restore you to your land.”

¹³ ‘However, if you say, “We will not stay in this land,” and so disobey the Lord your God, ¹⁴ and if you say, “No, we will go and live in Egypt, where we will not see war or hear the trumpet or be hungry for bread,” ¹⁵ then hear the word of the Lord, you remnant of Judah. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “If you are determined to go to Egypt and you do go to settle there, ¹⁶ then the sword you fear will overtake you there, and the famine you dread will follow you into Egypt, and there you will die. ¹⁷ Indeed, all who are determined to go to Egypt to settle there will die by the sword, famine and plague; not one of them will survive or escape the disaster I will bring on them.” ¹⁸ This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “As my anger and wrath have been poured out on those who lived in Jerusalem, so will my wrath be poured out on you when you go to Egypt. You will be a curse^[b] and an object of horror, a curse^[c] and an object of reproach; you will never see this place again.”

¹⁹ ‘Remnant of Judah, the Lord has told you, “Do not go to Egypt.” Be sure of this: I warn you today ²⁰ that you made a fatal mistake when you sent me to the Lord your God and said, “Pray to the Lord our God for us; tell us everything he says and we will do it.” ²¹ I have told you today, but you still have not obeyed the Lord your God in all he sent me to tell you. ²² So now, be sure of this: you will die by the sword, famine and plague in the place where you want to go to settle.’

43 When Jeremiah had finished telling the people all the words of the Lord their God – everything the Lord had sent him to tell them – ² Azariah son of Hoshaiah and Johanan son of Kareah and all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, ‘You are lying! The Lord our God has not sent you to say, “You must not go to Egypt to settle there.” ³ But Baruch son of Neriah is inciting you against us to hand us over to the Babylonians,^[a] so that they may kill us or carry us into exile to Babylon.’

⁴ So Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers and all the people disobeyed the Lord’s command to stay in the land of Judah. ⁵ Instead, Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers led away all the remnant of Judah who had come back to live in the land of Judah from all the nations where they had been scattered. ⁶ They also led away all those whom Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard had left with Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan – the men, the women, the children and the king’s daughters. And they took Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch son of Neriah along with them. ⁷ So they entered Egypt in disobedience to the Lord and went as far as Tahpanhes.

⁸ In Tahpanhes the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: ⁹ ‘While the Jews are watching, take some large stones with you and bury them in clay in the brick pavement at the entrance to Pharaoh’s palace in Tahpanhes. ¹⁰ Then say to them, “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I will send for my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and I will set his throne over these stones I have buried here; he will spread his royal canopy above them. ¹¹ He will come and attack Egypt, bringing death to those destined for death, captivity to those destined for captivity, and the sword to those destined for the sword. ¹² He will set fire to the temples of the gods of Egypt; he will burn their temples and take their gods captive. As a shepherd picks his garment clean of lice, so he will pick Egypt clean and depart. ¹³ There in the temple of the sun^[b] in Egypt he will demolish the sacred pillars and will burn down the temples of the gods of Egypt.”’

16 ‘All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. ² They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. ³ They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. ⁴ I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you, ⁵ but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, “Where are you going?” ⁶ Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. ⁷ But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. ⁸ When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: ⁹ about sin, because people do not believe in me; ¹⁰ about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; ¹¹ and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

¹² ‘I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. ¹³ But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. ¹⁴ He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. ¹⁵ All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.’

The disciples’ grief will turn to joy

¹⁶ Jesus went on to say, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.’

¹⁷ At this, some of his disciples said to one another, ‘What does he mean by saying, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,” and “Because I am going to the Father”?’ ¹⁸ They kept asking, ‘What does he mean by “a little while”? We don’t understand what he is saying.’

¹⁹ Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, ‘Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me”? ²⁰ Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. ²¹ A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. ²² So with you: now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. ²³ In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. ²⁴ Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.

²⁵ ‘Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. ²⁶ In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. ²⁷ No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. ²⁸ I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.’

²⁹ Then Jesus’ disciples said, ‘Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. ³⁰ Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.’

³¹ ‘Do you now believe?’ Jesus replied. ³² ‘A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.

³³ ‘I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.’